Permanent link to MTA daily media news

Sweetie Gets Paid (by Pat Racimora at No Quarter)

Democrats and Unity Drive the Campaign Narrative: June 23 - 29, 2008 (Project for Excellence in Journalism)
Barack Obama’s efforts to heal the wounds of the primary battle and to reconcile with the Clintons were the major story lines in last week’s coverage of the Presidential campaign.

No Where Else to Go (by Anglachel)
The split of the Democratic electorate … has been followed by growing resistance to the designated nominee. This is not something I have seen before on the Democratic side… Symptomatic of the deep problem of the party as a whole is the turn by the leadership towards privatization of social risk. Health insurance is not a mandate, and thus a right, but a choice to be exercised if desired. This ignores power, especially the power of the state to defend the citizen against the encroachment of moneyed interests. The well-off [Stevensonian elite] are no longer interested in defending the material needs of those who are not a part of Whole Foods Nation, and they hide their abandonment under the guise of rejecting racism. If the problem is the state of your soul and not the condition of your medical care, then you must heal yourself, and they can smugly pat themselves on the back for having defended the right moral stance.

The message of economic justice still resonates with the majority of Democrats, as shown by Hillary’s intense support, but that message is not accepted as true. When we talk about it, we’re met by screams of “Racist! Racist!” and sneers that we have nowhere else to go. How can Obama’s content-free message make contact with the real world? There is nothing to attach his rhetoric to, no central organizing principle. He talks about the “smallness of our politics,” so what is it precisely that is to be enlarged? He has always backed away from the hard choice of throwing the power of the state behind the cause of social justice. At every point, Obama backs away from requiring these efforts, while Hillary embraced them. The Stevensonians have forced their preferred candidate on the party on their own terms, paying no mind to where they stand and what they want to accomplish. They may be centrists, but they no longer have a center to hold.

For Clinton Democrats, there is nowhere else to go with Obama because there was never anything there to begin with.

Unity Without Impunity (by Pagan Power at No Quarter)
Despite all the talk of unity things aren’t all that unified across the country. A new phenomenon is occurring. Politicians that backed Hillary Clinton are now facing challenges by those who want to punish the people that supported her. Even John Lewis who changed his endorsement to Obama under duress is not immune… So where will this lead? I cannot begin to guess. Because every single day something new surfaces about these thugs and their Chicago style of politics. But one thing is for certain. They will find more creative ways to intimidate people that do not share their views. Because that is just the way they roll.

Wes Clark: Right about the dichotomy. (by Sarah at Corrente)
Columbia Journalism Review gets the point, and tells the story like it is: the Main$tream Media manufactured the flap about General Wes Clark’s remark regarding John McCain. Time we all start asking one question: “Is riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down a qualification to be President?” Riding in a fighter plane and getting grounded for incompetence, as we have all spent the last seven years learning the hard way, sure as hell is not.

Ooh, the blogosphere’s media critique is back! (by vastleft at Corrente)
When Obama was the beneficiary and Hillary was being pounced on by rabid wolves, where were Progressive Blogosphere 1.0’s muckrakers then? Well, here’s the corporate media that treated y’all so well in the primaries…Of course, Obama both rejects and defends Clark’s comments, so either way he’s doing the right thing.

HOW OBAMA LOSES THE ELECTION IN 30 SECONDS. (by Marc Rubin at Tom In Paine)
In the Obama campaign’s most recent bizarre moment, Barack Obama, exercising the judgement he has become famous for, decided it was a good idea to send Wesley Clark onto the Sunday talk show circuit to criticize John McCain’s war record and military service saying it was not sufficient for him to be commander-in-chief… Now we can add another Obama “what were they thinking moment” to go along with his other famous moments including his recent seal of disapproval which doesn’t just call his judgement into question, it shows he simply doesn’t have any. And while being a Navy fighter pilot and a POW for 4 years certainly doesn’t qualify someone to be Commander-in- Chief, being mentored for 17 years by Jeremiah Wright doesn’t exactly move you to the top of the list either…

I used to be in advertising. I did print ads and TV commercials and ad campaigns for a living. I won a lot of awards doing it… It took me less than 5 minutes to write a commercial for John McCain using this one issue, that he could run against Barack Obama from now until election day and John McCain could go fishing from now until November and win an election that would make Reagan - Mondale look like a squeaker.
Click through to read Marc’s ad copy.

Quibbles and Bits - Faith-based Edition (by LisaB at No Quarter)
Barack Obama has found at least one Bush initiative he is willing to continue … according to an AP article. “Obama proposes to elevate [Bush’s Office of Faith Based Initiatives] to a ‘moral center’ of his administration, by renaming it the Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and changing training from occasional huge conferences to empowering larger religious charities to mentor smaller ones in their communities.” Let’s just hope Obama doesn’t decide the “moral center” he hopes to establish doesn’t include those “spiritual advisors” he has relied on in the past… [And] contrast that seeming care about poverty and traditional Democratic values with [his] flip on welfare reform… Obama is moving ever further from positions staked out during the primary campaign, embracing positions he used to deride and is courting evangelicals. Is he trying to recreate the GWB base? Look for a flip flop on guns. Oh, wait. . .

Obama Be With You (by Uppity Woman at No Quarter)

Obama is the Democratic Party’s George Bush Redux. He’s inept just like George Bush. He lies to get what he wants, just like George Bush. He’s arrogant, just like George Bush. He disinfranchises entire blocks of Americans, just like George Bush. He uses people, just like George Bush. He’s arrogant, just like George Bush. He refuses to be vetted, just like George Bush. He gets his sycophants to attack people, just like George Bush. He rigs things, just like George Bush. He’s a thug, just like George Bush. He’s impressed with himself, just like George Bush. He cheats, just like George Bush. He has unsavory friends, just like George Bush. And he has a middle east conflict, just like George Bush. And now, we are watching Barack Obama refuse to separate Church from State, just like George Bush.

Faith Based Discrimination And Federal Funding (by Big Tent Democrat at TalkLeft)
The NYTimes writes “While Mr. Obama opposes requiring religious tests for recipients of aid or use of federal money to proselytize, The Associated Press reported that he supports letting religious institutions — in the non-federally funded parts of their activities — hire and fire based on faith, according to a senior adviser to the campaign who the news agency said spoke on condition of anonymity. While that notion appeared controversial, it seems to find support in a 2000 case involving the Boy Scouts of America. The Supreme Court ruled that the group, as a private organization, had a First Amendment right to set its membership rules.” (Emphasis supplied.) The bolded portion of the excerpt is simply incorrect. The Boy Scouts case (the Dale case) is not relevant to federal funding of organizations.

Bring Me The Head Of Bob Gates (by Steve Soto at the Left Coaster)
Which is more alarming about the stories surrounding Dick Cheney/Halliburton spinoff KBR’s work in Iraq?
1. They engaged in massive fraud and poor work in Iraq.
2. They managed to get an Army overseer fired for blocking payments.
3. KBR and the Pentagon never fixed the shoddy work since 2004.
4. Thirteen Americans have been electrocuted and several killed as a result of KBR’s negligence.
5. Defense Secretary Bob Gates was told about this, and nothing changed.
6. The Army and Pentagon still gave KBR a 10-year, $150 billion extension this year anyway.
7. Barack Obama thinks Bob Gates would make a great Defense Secretary.
What outrages you the most? Oh, that’s right. What disappoints you the most is that I would dare to question Obama’s judgment about Gates. Sorry.

McCain: “Obama’s Word Can Not Be Trusted” (by Big Tent Democrat at TalkLeft)
So I am watching MSNBC and they run a tape of McCain stating his campaign’s theme of the day - Obama is a liar. After yesterday’s contretemps, I find this incredibly amusing. It seems McCain is the one bringing a gun to a knife fight. See how nice Obama was to McCain yesterday? And see how “nice” McCain is being to Obama today? I really have to laugh - this is the game every time and Dems always fall for it. Thank Gawd George Bush has ruined the GOP brand because otherwise the Democratic Party would be capable of blowing even this election.
They may be capable of blowing this one, Armando.  See below.

CNN Poll: McCain, Obama in Tight Race (Political Wire)
The latest CNN/Opinion Research poll shows Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama locked in a statistical dead heat in the race for the White House. Obama holds a narrow 5-point advantage among registered voters nationwide over McCain, 50% to 45%. In a four way match-up that includes independent candidate Ralph Nader and Libertarian Bob Barr, Obama’s lead over McCain dwindles to 3 points, 46% to 43%. (Nader registers 6% while Barr gets 3%.)
There’s also Cynthia McKinney, don’t forget.

What’s the Matter With Boomers? (by tnjen at Corrente)
Poll after poll tells us the country wants democrats to be in charge and when asked if this is a democratic year we’ve seen pundits and party leaders alike do their best impression of a Magic 8-Ball — at times even shaking and turning blue with exasperation before telling us that, “[all] signs point to yes.” But despite the bluster, Senator Obama is lagging behind the much vaunted and highly praised “generic” democrat. So why is it that Senator Obama is performing below expectations? Why hasn’t he opened up a much larger lead in most tracking polls? According to the Cook Political Report, Obama’s got double trouble with white boomers when compared to the patterns of support from the generations that came before them as well as those that followed them.
And that could be because we’ve been subject to more lies thrown at us by our government—serious, important lies, than any other generation before or since.  Think starting the Vietnam War.  Think Nixon’s “secret plan” to end the Vietnam War.  Think Watergate.  Think Iran/Contra.  And those are just the really biggies.  We don’t like being lied to.

Vastleft Un-Endorses Barack Hussein Obama (by vastleft at Corrente)
[M]y pit of capitulation has its limits. I’ll vote for Obama when he asks for my vote. Me, a baby boomer atheist who wants a presidency that repudiates the greed-is-good Reagan-Bush-Bush Revolution. I’m not holding my breath. He keeps asking for me not to vote for him, and it’s high time I obliged… What are the odds that he’ll actually ask for my vote with something better than “I might nominate Supreme Court justices who are 2% less evil than McCain will”?

Future of the US Supreme Court underplayed on campaign trail
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The next president of the United States may be able to appoint several Supreme Court justices — the powerful judges whose rulings affect the daily lives of Americans — yet the issue is underplayed on the presidential campaign trail.

Open Thread: Momentous Meltdown? (by bostonboomer at The Confluence)
[W]ho will Obama throw under the bus next? Hmmm…already under the bus: women, old people, baby boomers, the Clinton Administration, his grandmother, Rev. Wright, Fr. Phleger, Tony Rezko, Samantha Power, various and sundry other staff members, the LGBT community, muslims, supporters of Israel, Appalachia, African American men, the Great Possum Seal, Cuban-Americans, Wesley Clark, Moveon.org, the fourth amendment, the establishment clause…who’s next? And will the Obama Campaign continue to self-destruct? What are the superdelegates thinking tonight? I have to admit, I’m getting my hopes up for Denver in August.

Wall Street Backs Obama (Political Wire )
“Wall Street is investing heavily in Barack Obama. Although the Democratic presidential hopeful has vowed to raise capital gains and corporate taxes, financial industry bigs have contributed almost twice as much to Obama as to GOP rival John McCain,” a New York Daily News analysis of campaign records shows. David Brooks take the analysis further and notes the real core of Obama’s financial support “are not just small donors but the rising class of information age analysts.”

From the Artist General (via email)

NRA Plans Blitz Against Obama (Political Wire)
The National Rifle Association “plans to spend about $40 million on this year’s presidential campaign, with $15 million of that devoted to portraying Sen. Barack Obama as a threat to the Second Amendment rights upheld last week by the Supreme Court,” according to Politico. “The politically powerful gun rights group will split its message efforts between communicating with its 4 million members and the tens of millions more firearms owners across the country.”

Your Brain Lies to You (by Sam Wang, associate professor of molecular biology and neuroscience at Princeton, and Sandra Aamodt, former editor in chief of Nature Neuroscience, authors of “Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life.”

The brain does not simply gather and stockpile information as a computer’s hard drive does… A false statement from a noncredible source that is at first not believed can gain credibility during the months it takes to reprocess memories from short-term hippocampal storage to longer-term cortical storage. As the source is forgotten, the message and its implications gain strength… Even if they do not understand the neuroscience behind source amnesia, campaign strategists can exploit it to spread misinformation. They know that if their message is initially memorable, its impression will persist long after it is debunked.

Psychologists have suggested that legends propagate by striking an emotional chord. In the same way, ideas can spread by emotional selection, rather than by their factual merits…

Consumers of news, for their part, are prone to selectively accept and remember statements that reinforce beliefs they already hold.
In support of my comment to Steve Benen’s recent post at Crooks and Liars, “Pick a meme, any meme”, where he says that Republican “memes are largely nonsensical and easy to disprove.”

McCain heads to Colombia, where his top strategist has lobbying ties. (Think Progress)
[Tuesday], Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) [embarked] on a trip to South America, where he will stop in Cartagena, Colombia to meet with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. But as he prepares to leave, focus is shifting to the long standing business and political ties between the country and McCain’s top strategist, Charlie Black. The New York Times [reported] that Black’s firm received more than $1.8 million lobbying for Colombia’s leading gas and oil company:

Reid: ‘Coal makes us sick!’ (Think Progress)
The Crypt reports that the video of an appearance by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on the Fox Business Network has gone viral on YouTube, attracting over 270,000 views and earning a spot on the site’s “most viewed” list. In the interview, Reid emphatically states, “Coal makes us sick.”… Conservatives are “sending around the video as part of an effort to make Democrats appear out of touch on the need to produce more energy and drill more oil wells.” But of course, Reid is telling the obvious truth — coal is dirty.
Click through to watch the video.

US ‘Escalates Covert Iran Missions’ (video)
Al Jazeera’s Ghida Fakhry talks to investigative journalist Seymour Hersh about his latest article in New Yorker magazine, claiming that US congressional leaders have agreed to a presidential request for up to $400 million in funding for covert operations against Iran.

Mythbuster: The Doctors’ Revolt (by Roger Bybee, The American Prospect)
Doctors, the traditional advocates for the medical status quo, are increasingly in favor of major reforms to the U.S. health-care system.

Media Matters for America headlines

• CBS Evening News aired portion of Floyd Brown’s anti-Obama attack ad, failing to report Obama is not a Muslim

• Matthews: “They’re the working-class white voters … the regular folks”

• Savage repeatedly referred to Pelosi as Mussolini, called her “the Mussolini in a skirt”

• Ignoring GOP filibuster, Politico falsely claimed Medicare bill needed 60 votes for passage

• Print reports on Clark’s comments didn’t note that McCain camp’s response included Swift Boat Vet Bud Day

• Media in a frenzy, but Clark’s comment not extraordinary or unprecedented

• MSNBC’s Barnicle misrepresented Obama’s comments about gas tax holiday, overstated savings

• Media continue to falsely claim Clark criticized McCain’s service

• Drudge, Lowry revived falsehood that Obama didn’t vote to condemn MoveOn Petraeus ad

• NY Times’ Zeleny uncritically repeated false charge that Clark “impugn[ed]” McCain’s “heroism”

• Broadcast networks falsely suggested that Clark criticized McCain’s service

US Army Releases Journalist After Four-days Of Unexplained Detention
Reporters Without Borders welcomed the release of freelance journalist Ahmed al-Majun, president of the local branch of the Iraq journalists’ union in Tikrit.

Why did BoingBoing delete posts about sex columnist Blue?
No one, including Violet Blue herself, has any idea what’s behind the scrubbing, reports David Sarno. “BoingBoing has been conspicuously silent; despite considerable confusion in the blogosphere, the site has not posted about the issue or said they planned to.” Almost all of the deleted blog entries were posted by BoingBoing writers highlighting and linking to Blue’s work.

People-Funded Journalism Budding (by J.D. Lasica at MediaShift)
Efforts like Spot.us, where citizens fund stories at the community level, are important experiments that bear watching — and, more importantly, sustained support

The newspaper of the future should be a convener of people
“In a fractured media world it is incumbent on the democratic responsibilities of newspapers that newspapers lead, guide and direct everything from democracy to knitting club,” says Tim McGuire. ALSO: “Publishers need to be willing to print sheets of varying sizes and shapes on different days of the week. Maybe Monday is a 16-page summary of weekend news and sports. Maybe Tuesday is even smaller and sports coverage does not have to be a part of that package. Those choices should be made according to news demand AND advertiser demands.”
Guide and direct? Still thinking top down, are we?  That’s not where the media world is going.  Better to be thinking about catching and hanging on than guiding and directing.

Lee Enterprises Joins Wide Meltdown After Downgrade
Lee Enterprises Inc. stock sank by more than 12% Tuesday in a trading session in which innvestors greeted the launch of E.W. Scripps Co. as newspaper pureplay by selling off the stock on huge volume.

Value of 11 newspaper companies down $23.7B this year
Alan Mutter figures the companies have lost a cumulative $49.7 billion in market capitalization in 3 1/2 years, vaporizing 51% of shareholder value since Dec. 31. 2004. Journal Register Co. and the Sun-Times Media Group suffered the worst losses in the 3 1/2-year period, respectively shedding 99.1% and 96.9% of their value.

Monster founder sets sights on online obituaries
NEW YORK (AP) - Fourteen years ago, Jeff Taylor helped set off a tectonic shift in recruitment advertising by founding Monster.com, one of the first online companies to challenge a big profit source of newspapers. Now, just as papers are reeling from a massive drainage of ad dollars online, Taylor thinks he’s found another one of their strongholds that’s ripe for online competition: Obituaries. Funerals have historically been local affairs, which meshed well with newspapers’ strong ties to their communities. But Taylor believes that may be changing as more people live far from the places they were born and grew up. Taylor hopes his new site, Tributes.com, will fill that broader need.

Box Office Outperforms Expectations
Mid-range films are helping to fuel a surge at the 2008 domestic box office that virtually no one expected. To date, this summer’s revenues are running ahead of summer 2007 — the best on record — by 4 percent. The average gross of films ranking Nos. 11-20 is $36.7 million. Last year, the average gross was $22 million, underscoring the difference it can make when films down the food chain perform well.

Hasbro to Take Its Games to the Movies
Hasbro is interviewing potential directors, assembling a creative team and building an office in Los Angeles on the movie-making lot of Universal Studios, which this year agreed to be a partner in the venture. Hasbro and Universal, a unit of General Electric Co., will be rolling the dice on a number of old-time classics, including Monopoly, Candy Land and Ouija.

Blockbuster Abandons Its Circuit City Quest (by by Rafat Ali at Paid Content)
In this year of non-deals and terminated deals, this is not a surprise, considering how foolish the bid was in the first place: Blockbuster has abandoned its offer to buy Circuit City Stores, after weeks of investor speculation on the deal’s progress.

Another Strike, and TV Will Look a Lot Like Monday Night
Rash Report: Reality, Repeats and Really Low Ratings Were the Theme

Cnet Buy Puts CBS In Top 10 Web Properties
CBS Corp. completed its $1.8 billion purchase of San Francisco’s Cnet Networks Inc. on Monday in a deal that makes CBS one of the top 10 largest Web properties.

FriendFeed To Become Your Podcast Player? (Mashable)
Audio podcasts still continue to be a prevalent form of information delivery, despite the rise of online video, and just about every major category of online content has well produced content (much like our own Web 2.0-centric Mashable Conversations series). FriendFeed has noticed this and has very quietly been testing embedded players in the FriendFeed system to allow users to listen to podcasts as they bubble up through the natural course of discussion within the system.

Microsoft seeks allies for new Yahoo move: report
(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp is preparing a new bid for Yahoo Inc’s search business and has approached other media companies about joining it in a deal that would effectively lead to Yahoo’s breakup, the Wall Street Journal said.

Build Your Own Brand, Not YouTube’s (by Daisy Whitney, TV Week)
YouTube is not the most important online video distribution partner. Sounds like a pretty crazy statement, right? After all, Nielsen Online said YouTube delivered 3.8 billion video streams to 68 million unique visitors in May, more than 11 times the volume of its closest competitor. Yet YouTube is not the most important online video distribution partner. The most important distribution partner for your show is your site. And that applies to the biggest television network and to the smallest Web series producer.

First Reviews Are In: Google AdPlanner Not Likely To Rival ComScore, Nielsen (Paid Content)
At least initially, Google’s free audience measurement aid, AdPlanner, isn’t likely to represent much of a threat to established services offered by comScore and Nielsen. Several ad agency execs offer their first takes to Mediaweek, and say they find Google AdPlanner sorely lacking. AdPlanner’s promise is based on being able to better target online ads through a combination of audience measurement numbers, search engine data and information from third parties.

DISH says AT&T to end partnership at year-end
NEW YORK (Reuters) - DISH Network Corp, the No. 2 U.S. satellite television provider, said on Tuesday it received notice that phone operator AT&T Inc is ending their agreement at the end of the year to sell TV, phone and Internet packages.

AT&T will sell no-contract iPhone for extra $400
AT&T will sell the new version of the iPhone without a service contract for $400 more than the price with a two-year plan, a break from the rules set when Apple’s popular touch-screen gadget debuted last year.